Traffic Barriers Called A No-go

50 At Meeting Ask Removal Of Barricades At Public Housing Units

August 23, 1999|By Ken O'Brien.

JOLIET — Opponents of two barricades installed by the Housing Authority of Joliet rallied over the weekend, calling on the agency to remove them.

More than 50 people attended a 45-minute meeting at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church Saturday morning to protest the barricades. One is at Fairmount and Rosalind Avenues and the other is a block west, at Englewood and Rosalind Avenues.

The barricades are at the 174-unit Fairview Housing Complex, on the dividing line between Joliet and Lockport Township. The housing authority installed the barriers more than a year ago in response to resident complaints about crime and cars speeding through the complex, agency officials said.

Opponents, including the Joliet Area Church-based Organized Body known as JACOB, say the barriers fence in Fairview residents and limit access between Joliet and Lockport Township.

Despite recent protests, the housing authority board has refused to remove the barricades. Authority officials, who did not attend Saturday's meeting, say the barriers have helped make the Fairview complex safer.

"The issue is this we are locked in by the barricades," Rev. Clint Wilburn, the pastor of Mt. Moriah and the chairman of JACOB, said at the meeting.

"In wealthy communities, gates are built to keep others out," Wilburn said. "In poor communities, like the housing authority, barriers are built to keep people in. Why do we accept this double standard? This is not just."

JACOB and Mt. Moriah Church members held the meeting two days after barricade opponents attended a meeting at Joliet City Hall, where Henry Morris, the executive director of the housing authority, participated in an hourlong discussion over which Joliet Mayor Arthur Schultz presided.

Schultz announced on Thursday the formation of a 10-member committee to study issues surrounding the barricades. On Saturday, Wilburn called formation of such a committee a victory.

The committee, which will include five members from the church and five city residents, will meet within two weeks, Schultz said. He wants the committee to review several issues, including the number of drug arrests made and the number of speeding tickets issued since the barricades were erected.

Wilburn said other members of the Joliet clergy, including Bishop Joseph Imesch of the Joliet Catholic Diocese, have joined him in calling for the barricades' removal.

Additionally, JACOB organizers announced that the Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations, a group representing 132 churches of many faiths throughout the Chicago area, has voiced support for JACOB's position. Paul Kaiser, a Joliet resident, represented the alliance at the meeting.

"The barricades are a very obvious symbol of an attitude in society, which is prevalent and which demeans people who are in a housing complex," Kaiser said after the meeting. "It is a clear message that says, `Here is a line that you cannot cross.' "

After the meeting, Wilburn led a march from the church to the barricades, located several blocks away. At the barrier at Englewood and Rosalind Avenues, Rev. Edward Martin, pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Joliet, called for justice.

"We don't want to be boxed in," Martin said. "Lord, bring down these walls of separation."